Can you explain your idea some more? I mean I understand the concept, but what would be the upside to your idea? How will the "average plunder pirates player" benefit?
So let me see if I understand this correctly. The Devs make it so people can trade gold and grog for gems, and will no longer have to buy gems. Income drops and Devs lose their jobs and no new content is created. No new content and players lose interest and stop playing. Players stop playing, and remaining people who do buy gems are no longer buying because there is nothing new worth buying gems for. The number of players drop, game eventually is no longer supported because no income to the backers. Game ceases to exist.
Other than buying gold or grog gems let you speed things up. Is there anything else? So on that basis main use would be another way to pay to finish stuff quickly. Another thing would be it effectively gives you a vault, gems can't be plundered (and I think allowing it would not be very good for Midoki, someone dumps 100 USD on gems and has half plundered then methinks they may not buy any more). If Midoki wanted to consider this then I would have thought need big spread between what goes in and comes out, i.e. it is much more expensive to buy gems than what you get back when you redeem them. Can't see it happening as gems are Midoki's revenue stream. I guess for minor speed ups (say recruiting) could let people directly just pay more (e.g. for your level 19 gunner costs 800 grog to recruit and wait, cost, I don't know, 1,200 to recruit now). Still think it unlikely but may be possible. I have been more verbose than pp (but they posted since I started) but we both make the same point re revenue.
That would be wonderful. However I haven't seen a game yet that allows you to do that. Like @Salty Snack said. Defeats the purpose.
I am coming across Gem packets in the 'Errands' lists. More than what is gained in the exploration Map, but not enough to stop people buying.
It seems like all of the above replies took it to the extreme. I still believe this is a viable and beneficial idea. I realize that the purchase of gems is a major revenue for midoki and never intended for this to be a replacement to cash purchases, only a help to those who can't make deep pocket purchases. Midoki is in charge of the exchange rate and never in my wildest dreams considered an equal exchange to the cash purchase value. But there are times that we require gems and don't have the cash to make an event happen but may have resources to exchange for gem costs. I hope this idea can get a fair evaluation without extreme thinking. Thank you again for your time and consideration. Respectfully, Sneaky Pete
Regardless, even though this game isn't nearly as gem-hungry as others in the genre, the current gem awards are still lacking. They need to give enough for you to be able to DO something with then, but not so much that it affects profit. Wisely, the devs have played it safe by keeping rewards small, but there still needs to be more of a payout. This would help. Over the last month, I spent over 1,000 gems (earned, not bought, mind you) hiring troops for raids and donations to guildmates. During that same time, I got exactly 27 gems back from map rewards. One month's gem rewards gets me 1 tavernful of troops? That's not good.
Welcome to the "real world".. Don't have the cash to see a movie, you don't see the movie. You don't have the money for gas, you don't drive. You didn't do anything for Midoki to get the resourcses you speak of. They let you get those resources by letting you play their game for free. When it comes to gemming it is the one and only time they ask you to pay them for their job. Do you work for free?
Dang, Evil. Lighten up! Believe me I have done my share and then some to insure that midoki programmers drive BMW's. I agree with Kelani, it's out of balance. This is a great game but the developer needs to give back to the loyal players in some form of compensation other than fight a fish and get a couple of gems! I realize that they are entitled to profit worthy of their risk of investment and agree they should be proud of their accomplishments. Now it's time to insure that we the lowly daily player gets a bone to chew on.
If it was done at an extreme enough rate, it might actually INCREASE revenue for Midoki Convert 1 mill gold and grog to 10 gems for example - you likely won't be able to farm it back for under 10 gems. But now, players likely won't have more than 1 million of both in stores except when saving for upgrades, so now it takes MORE gems to farm it back, as there is less currency in circulation and bases give less rewards. It could essentially become a resource sink, which can be a good design decision if done right. Players spending to gem raids to farm walls might have to spend more on gems than previously, since the average loot per gem would go down. If balanced properly (one of your mathematicians with economics experience could probably find the best rate), it COULD be something done right, while being a unique concept that might actually drive more players and support for the game in the long run as well. And new players that feel like they're being given a good deal and treated fairly by a company are more likely to make purchases as well, and as soon as a player makes one purchase they are exponentially more likely to become a repeat customer. I am not saying I completely agree with the idea because if not done perfectly it would be disastrous, but a mathematical expert at Midoki could certainly make an informed evaluation of the idea and see if finding the right exchange rate could act as a resource sink that ultimately leads to increased revenue.
As an addendum to that, I think providing us with more, regular content to spend gems on is a better game design solution as a resource sink (175 wall lv12s is going to suck a lot of gold out of the in game economy), but it would certainly be an interesting industry choice if they went that route.
Well I think that says it all.... You think someone OWES you something for playing a game... Wow...just wow...
Midoki put a lot of work into making this game not require gem purchases to play and do well. So much attention was paid to that, I feel like it was a big priority for them. When they were deciding what the random gold/grog/gem rewards should be, they opted to play it safe and keep them low. This was the smart play. It's far better to increase the rewards later, then have to reduce them, and piss everyone off. The same applies to gem gold/grog Market purchases, as well as the gem completion cost for buildings. These are extremely high for the same reason. The problem is that there is now enough game data to show that these rewards are too low, and the costs are too high, yet, they have still not been modified.
I think so, and I like it. Android users will get hit harder than any of us ever did, and the faster they build up their bases, the sooner we can hit them for good res.
I thought the point of gems was to use them to somehow get more gold and grog by speed recruiting pirates and such. I know we can also speed up buildings and exploration, but it would probably be loads of resources to speed up just one thing.
Hmm... this could work... You can trade x number of coins + x number of grog + y number of Battle Points/Exploration Points to trade into Gems. However, a "Transfer Fee" of 1 gem would be required. This way, people still buy gems, the game is still supported, the devs don't lose their job etc.
